Most baby or child carriers are worn by parents who want to be close to their young children as they go about their daily schedules. Hence there are currently any number of wearable child carriers on the market which afford the wearer freedom of hand and arm movement while transporting a child that is secured in the carrier. In pursuit of ergonomic considerations, some of these carriers have become overly complex involving complicated mechanisms in an attempt to accommodate the growth of the child or adjust the position of the carrier mode.
There are generally four carrier modes of a baby carrier. Namely, front mode where the child can face inwards or outwards with respect to the wearer, back mode where the child faces inwards and is carried on the back of the wearer and hip mode where the child faces inwards and is carried on the hip of the wearer. However, a disadvantage of some baby carriers is that they are not multi functional and only offer limited modes such as front face inward and outward respectively. Others can only be worn on the back thus denying the child the comfort and security of a front carrier position where a child and its parent are in a face-to-face relationship.
Some of the baby carriers that do offer multi functional modes are provided with multiple harness pieces to operate in both front and back carry modes. The requirement to interchange harness pieces when changing modes hinders parents, and makes the usability of such carriers overly complicated and inconvenient, notwithstanding the use of buckles or fasteners of some baby carriers that can be difficult to manipulate when adjusting position or modes.
In addition to the above, these complex carriers are cumbersome and do not adequately take into account ergonomic considerations that can result in undue strain upon the wearer, particularly in the lumbar region. For example, the carrier may sit too low when in the back mode hindering parents' comfort, including the positioning of shoulder and waist bands creating discomfort over prolonged use and imbalance of weight distribution when the baby moves from side to side. The use of stiff padding has the effect of making the wearer feel as though the carrier is fitting imperfectly around the wearer's body shape. On a practical level, the strap placement of some baby carriers over the chest can create difficulties when breast feeding in a carrier.
With respect to the child's comfort, health and safety, some baby carriers are of concern. For example, with some baby carriers, when used with a small baby in front face out mode, the height of the carrier is not ergonomically designed as it is too high and may obstruct the baby's mouth and breathing. The position of the waistband of some carriers has the tendency to leave pressure marks on the baby's inner thighs and may affect circulation when wearing in front facing mode. In some cases, the baby's knees are not positioned anywhere near their hip height, thus in front face outward mode the carrier leaves the baby seated in an unsupported fairly narrow seat configuration leaving the legs to dangle straight down, often referred to in the industry as a ‘crotch dangler’.
Ideally, a good baby carrier should mimic the way parents hold their babies in their arms and the way babies position themselves when held. When a parent holds their newborn, the newborn will automatically draw up their legs into the ‘natural human position’ (often referred to as the “frog-legged” position) with their knees apart. The holder instinctively places their hand under the baby's bottom and holds their baby at a height where the top of their head is easily kissed. An older child will automatically bring his/her legs up around the holder's waist so that his/her knees end up slightly higher than their bottom.
In order to establish the above ‘natural human position’, some baby carriers utilise a wide seat configuration when in the front inwards facing mode, so when carrying a child in this position the hips are supported through to the knees. This ergonomic structuring takes unnecessary weight off of the child's hip joints which allows for healthy development and growth of all joints throughout the legs and hips. Conversely, the seat width may be narrowed when in the front outwards facing mode such that the hips and legs are not too far spread (as the seat would be too wide for the legs to wrap around), which negates the ergonomically accurate natural human position and causes discomfort to the child. Some baby carriers do not have the ability to alter the seat width, but those that do provide the feature of ergonomically accurate seat narrowing use complicated fastenings or methods which are far less intuitive and slow to re-configure. For example, one prior art baby carrier requires the parent to remove the bands surrounding the waistband then pull together and fasten. This form of functionality requires far more fastenings on the carrier itself to make it achievable, which often adds confusion to the parent who is trying to assess which fastening does what and where it should be secured. Furthermore, the bands that are drawn in and secured are not padded, and when fastened are positioned in a location which interferes with a comfortable smooth fabric surface for the child. Another carrier utilises fasteners which are difficult to operate and are located on an exterior facing outside of the carrier which not only proves intrusive to the overall aesthetics of the carrier itself, but the fasteners can often become caught on objects when in use.
Also, the use of extra padding and fabric of some carriers can lessen the carriers' breathability and infants may overheat after extended use or in warm climates.
From the above it can be seen that there is a need for an improved multi function baby carrier that addresses ergonomic concerns, mimics the way a baby is carried in the natural human position and overcomes disadvantages of known baby carriers or at least provides the public with a useful choice.
Further aspects and advantages of the product will become apparent from the ensuing description that is given by way of example only.